Mark Kermode: Movies as diverse as Ken Russell's The Devils, Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ, and even Monty Python's Life of Brian have all been branded as blasphemous and attracted sanctimonious calls for bans, yet all provided platforms for the serious and heated discussion of issues of faith in an increasingly materialistic, secular society.

Whatever spirit The Passion of the Christ director Mel Gibson has been full of recently chances are it wasn't holy. The Australian megastar's arrest for drink driving early last Friday morning has led to renewed accusations that he harbours anti-Semitic feelings.

From Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ to Saatchi's illustrious corpses, modern culture is awash with images of mutilation and gore. But why has carnage become such an iconographic commonplace, asks Peter Conrad.

Philip French: The violence is so obscenely extended that the display of sado-masochism makes us not only hate the pompous Jewish leaders who demand the punishment and the vile Roman soldiers who execute it, but it also brings into question the mentality of the people behind the movie